Undeniably, Krakauer’s transcendentalist appeal format and Sean Penn’s Byronic appeal both have their benefits and drawbacks in recapturing the life story of the rather arcane Chris McCandless. However, the precise accuracy and constant focus on McCandless in the movie, in conjunction with the Byronic and romantic theme, best brings out the true meaning of his life story. The portrayal of McCandless’s parents truly illustrates how he felt about his early life, and perhaps hints at the driving forces for his cross-country extravaganza. The film includes scenes of heated arguments and disputes between Walt and Billie McCandless. One includes them physically confronting each other, while Chris and his sister Corine are cowering in fear. The movie highlights more of the bad side of the parents compared to the book. This proves very effective in explaining the “unsavory secret past” that characterizes a Byronic hero, which may have led McCandless to seek a new meaning to life. As McCandless drives out of Atlanta in his Datsun, it begins Chapter 2 – Adolescence, indicating a new start to his life; he was seeking a new beginning.
The impressive acting of the characters in the movie emphasized the impact McCandless had on all of the people he met along his journey. Ronald Franz, who as noted in Into the Wild, “withdrew [his] church membership and became an atheist” (Krakauer 60) after Chris died had an even more profound impact in the movie. Hal Holbrook, who played Franz in the movie, did an astounding job that surely had to evoke emotion in any viewer. Furthermore, the way McCandless’s deep passion and drive for adventure influenced him was evident when Franz attempted to climb the small mountain where McCandless was temporarily livi...
... middle of paper ...
... that he had been searching for all along on his Great Alaskan Adventure. He had discovered that he needed to reconnect with the people he cared most about to share his pleasures. At this point McCandless was content with dying by his own volition; McCandless was indeed the iconic Byronic hero. As the camera sweeps up and pans away from McCandless’s resting spot in the bus, the tune of Eddie Vedder’s “Hard Sun” begins to play, invoking a feeling of happiness and accomplishment. Chris McCandless had found the meaning of life.
Works Cited
Hamilton, Ronald. “The Silent Fire: ODAP and the Death of Christopher McCandless."Scribd. Scribd, 7 Sept. 2013. Web. 9 Dec. 2013.
Into the Wild. Dir. Sean Penn. Perf. Emile Hirsch and Vince Vaughn. IMDb. 15 Nov. 2013. 18 Nov. 2013
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Anchor Books, 1997.
Throughout Into the Wild, Krakauer portrays Christopher McCandless as an infallibly eager young man hoping to distance himself from the society he so obviously loathes, to "live off the land," entirely independent of a world which has "conditioned [itself] to a life of security." Chris, contrarily to this depiction, is disparagingly viewed by some as a "reckless idiot" who lacked the sense he needed to survive in the Alaskan wilderness. This derogatory assessment of Chris's mindset is representative of the society he hopes to escape and contains all the ignorance that causes him to feel this way. Nevertheless, he is misjudged by these critics, allowing Krakauer to hold the more accurate interpretation of Chris's character, his goals, and his accomplishments.
McCandless’s relationship with his father, Walt McCandless is far from the ideal father-son relationship. Walt, a renowned NASA space engineer, seeks a certain path for his son’s future that McCandless is very stubborn to follow. After an excellent academic record throughout high school and college, his future looks quite promising. However, his want to not follow his path set before him by his parents are made very clear from his youth. In the third grade, when offered to join an accelerated program for gifted students, McCandless refused simply since it would mean that he had to do more schoolwork. Since then it has been clear that “Chris marches to a different drummer” (107), as one of his teachers recalled. The clash between his own desired path and the societally defined path pushed on him by his parents would have created a very significant internal conflict and it would be only made worse by finding out about his father’s affair. When visiting his childhood home of El Segundo, California, he discovers the double life that his father had lived as he was still in a relationship with his first wife, Marcia, even after he had Chris with Billie. At this point, his relationship with his entire family, including very close his sister, completely deteriorates. To McCandless, This serves to confirm his doubts in societally defined path and becomes a major turning point at which McCandless now is steadfast in his plans to escape society and travel into the Alaskan wilderness. Even in Fairbanks, Alaska, right before he makes the final act of journeying into the wild, McCandless still shows the profound influence father as he looks upon a satellite developed largely in part by Walt McCandless. Krakauer emphasizes the extent of McCandless’s disconnection to his family now as he states that “If the
Chris McCandless lived a life in which he disgusted by human civilization, and left it, eventually being led to his death in Alaska. McCandless entered the Alaskan wilderness severely unprepared, a brutal error that cost him his life. In the novel, Into the Wild by John Krakauer, Chris glances into his mindset by they way of his journal, history, and analysis of his life reveals that Chris McCandless as an arrogant and judgemental narcissist, while not mentally unstable, had a condescending attitude towards society and perished not only from his reckless stupidity but also from his unparalleled ego. Chris McCandless was immune to love and had an obsession with nature and society, him showing characteristics that created the appearance of McCandless
Chris McCandless is regarded as being something as a spiritual figure almost as a cult hero, some call him a disillusioned fool, some call him a great adventurer, and the debate still continues. As Matthew Power calls in his article, an article where he tells the story of McCandless,“The debate falls into two camps: Krakauer's visionary seeker, the tragic hero who dared to live the unmediated life he had dreamed of and died trying; or, as many Alaskans see it, the unprepared fool, a greenhorn who had fundamentally misjudged the wilderness he'd wanted so desperately to commune with.” Like so many stories covering Christopher McCandless’ death, both ends of the argument are discussed in an unfavored manner in the hopes to help develop an opinion on the McCandless story. This open ended question can only be answered open-endedly based on what the readers base for themselves as covered stories intend. Like Power has done, ...
Chris McCandless, the main character of “Into the wild” was angered by his father’s infidelity and bigamy. As a result, Chris McCandless wanted to separate himself from his family and he begins a spiritual adventure to search for his identity. Chris McCandless isolates himself physically and emotionally to find freedom and peace by adventuring into the wild. Therefore, McCandless escapes from Emory University and immediately flees his dull and predictable life, heading west without a word to his family. Although, McCandless journey ends in a tragic ending, he fulfilled his ambition by pursuing his ambition and inner peace. In conclusion, McCandless journey was both a search for inner peace and transition to maturity.
Into the Wild, a novel written by Jon Krakauer, as well as a film directed by Sean Penn, talks about Chris McCandless, a young individual who set out on a journey throughout the Western United States, isolating himself from society, and more importantly, his family. During his travels, he meets a lot of different people, that in a way, change his ways about how he sees the world. There are many characteristics to describe McCandless, such as “naïve”, “adventurous”, and “independent”. In the book, Krakauer described McCandless as “intelligent”, using parts in his book that show McCandless being “intelligent”. While Krakauer thinks of McCandless as being “intelligent”, Penn thinks of McCandless as a more “saintly” type of person.
McCandless’s utter repugnance for his parents caused something to snap within him resulting in his desire to remove them from his life, thus becoming free of their demands, judgments, and inquisitions. Krakauer explains; “Children can be harsh judges when it comes to their parents, disinclined to grant clemency, and this was especially true in Chris’s case" (122). The standards some parents set for their children are often unattainable and often come from a place of their own failures and shortcomings. In McCandless’s case, this is exactly what happened. Walt and Billie had demanded so much of Chris physically, academically, and morally, that when he was made aware of their i...
...en writing a book based on ethos, logos and pathos, it is very challenging for an author to stay completely objective. In Krakauer’s case, his bias comes out strongly in certain chapters, sometimes detracting from his argument. Some faults exist in his credibility and logic, but his use of emotional appeal makes up for what those areas lack. Krakauer does an excellent job developing the character of Chris McCandless. The author brings him back to life with his descriptions and is able to make him tangible to the reader. The discussion over what McCandless's thoughts were when he went on his fatal trek will continue as long as his memory lasts. Ultimately, the readers of Into the Wild are left to form their opinion of McCandless, with Krakauer nudging them along the way.
In the novel Into the Wild, Christopher McCandless is found dead in the Alaskan wilderness. He was raised in wealthy Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. and is a very gifted athlete, scholar, and holds passion and intensity. After graduating from high school McCandless spends the summer on a road trip across the country, which he discovers that his father secretly had a second family during Chris’s childhood. Father and Son is one of the main themes that help develop Into the Wild. Another theme of the novel is ultimate freedom. Chris always felt condemned to be the perfect person because that was the way he was raised.
In 1992, Christopher McCandless set off on an odyssey into the backcountry of Alaska, an adventure that had proved fatal. After McCandless's corpse was found, Jon Krakauer wrote an article on the story of Chris McCandless, which was released in the January 1993 issue of Outside magazine. The article had received a negative response; several readers criticized McCandless for being foolish and ill-prepared, and showed no sympathy or remorse for his death. McCandless has been referred to as a nut, a kook, and a fool. However, McCandless was not a nonsensical man. In 1996, Jon Krakauer's novel, Into the Wild, was published. The novel uncovers more detail of McCandless's story. Into the Wild rebuts the idea of McCandless being someone who is foolish, and speaks of the many occasions where McCandless has demonstrated great perseverance and determination. The novel also proves the intelligence of McCandless, and brings insight into McCandless's psyche. The following examples will illustrate how McCandless was not a fool, but someone to admire.
To begin with, McCandless’s decision to walk into the wild was acceptable because he wanted to become an inspiration and an individual. Emerson states, “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance: that imitation is suicide” (Emerson). Chris McCandless left to shun the conformist society that he could feel changing him. Chris wanted the chains that bound him to be broken. Society takes the individual and locks it up and destroys it. According to Emerson, “It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion: it is easy to in solitude to live after our own: but the great man is he who in the midst of the crow keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude” (Emerson). McCandless left his materialistic family to be his own person ad to be unique. The world’s opinion does not make the man wh...
Into the Wild, written by John Krakauer tells of a young man named Chris McCandless who 1deserted his college degree and all his worldly possessions in favor of a primitive transient life in the wilderness. Krakauer first told the story of Chris in an article in Outside Magazine, but went on to write a thorough book, which encompasses his life in the hopes to explain what caused him to venture off alone into the wild. McCandless’ story soon became a national phenomenon, and had many people questioning why a “young man from a well-to-do East Coast family [would] hitchhike to Alaska” (Krakauer i). Chris comes from an affluent household and has parents that strived to create a desirable life for him and his sister. As Chris grows up, he becomes more and more disturbed by society’s ideals and the control they have on everyday life. He made a point of spiting his parents and the lifestyle they lived. This sense of unhappiness continues to build until after Chris has graduated college and decided to leave everything behind for the Alaskan wilderness. Knowing very little about how to survive in the wild, Chris ventures off on his adventure in a state of naïveté. It is obvious that he possessed monumental potential that was wasted on romanticized ideals and a lack of wisdom. Christopher McCandless is a unique and talented young man, but his selfish and ultimately complacent attitude towards life and his successes led to his demise.
The settings in the story have impacts on the theme of young manhood. Chris leaves his family and decides to go on a journey to find a new life. Christopher felt affected in his family presence so he sends his final school report to his family: “McCandless was thrilled to be on his way north, and he was relieved as well-relieved that he had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy, of friendship, and all the messy emotional baggage that comes with it”(Krakauer,55). He believes that this is a way to find his true identity and peace of mind, which he thought could be achieved by fleeing into the wild. Chris seemed to have a bad relationship with his parents, especially with his father because Chris found out that he had a child with his first wife when Chris was born. This fact is revealed by his dad’s old neighbour, “Walt’s split from his first wife, Marcia, was not a clean or amicable parting. Long after falling in love with Billie, long after she gave birth to Chris, Walt continued his relationship with Marcia in secret” (Krakauer121). Chris knew about his father’s affair with another woman and this made it easier for Chris to not care about what his family has to say ...
In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer explores the human fascination with the purpose of life and nature. Krakauer documents the life and death of Chris McCandless, a young man that embarked on an Odyssey in the Alaskan wilderness. Like many people, McCandless believed that he could give his life meaning by pursuing a relationship with nature. He also believed that rejecting human relationships, abandoning his materialistic ways, and purchasing a book about wildlife would strengthen his relationship with nature. However, after spending several months enduring the extreme conditions of the Alaskan wilderness, McCandless’ beliefs begin to work against him. He then accepts that he needs humans, cannot escape materialism, and can never fully understand how nature functions. Most importantly, he realizes that human relationships are more valuable than infinite solitude. McCandless’ gradual change of heart demonstrates that exploring the wilderness is a transformative experience. Krakauer uses the life and death of Chris McCandless to convey that humans need to explore nature in order to discover the meaning of life.
When people read a book that they like they cant wait to see the movie that is based on the book. Many people criticize the movie or are not satisfied. While you watch this movie it is visually breathtaking and easily relatable. Chris McCandless is played by Emile Hirsch who does an outstanding job of portraying McCandless. McCandless’s parents are Walt and Billie McCandless. In the book they are portrayed as a little stuck up and snobbish. Sean Penn is a screenwriter and director for the movie adaptation of Into the Wild by John Krakauer. Sean Penn portrays Chris’s parents in a negative way in order to show that they were essentially responsible for him breaking away from society.